I was sitting at home Sunday morning looking out into my backyard. Everything had a layer of ice on it from the rain we had the night before. Looked gorgeous with the sun glistening off everything. Almost blinding.

This is about the time of year I start feeling a bit of cabin fever so when Casey called to see if I was up for a drive to Shediac Bay to check out his ice fishing hut. I got pretty excited as I would likely have sat around watching TV and playing my guitar all day.

A Shot From Where We Parked The Vehicle.

Casey said he’d be at my house in less than an hour and all I needed to bring was some food and something to drink. As I was leaving the house my son Steve asked me if I wanted to take his flask with some Scotch to share with Casey. What a great son I have.

It’s had been at least 30 yeas since I last did any ice fishing. That was when I was still living in Ontario, near Lake Simcoe. We would take our snowmobiles and head out about 2-5 miles to a huge ice fishing village.

As we were getting close I was thinking we would be going out on the ice with our vehicle which kind of concerned me, but I trust Casey to keep me safe so I didn’t say anything at the time.

As you can see from the image above the fish huts weren’t far from shore at all. We just parked and walked out to the hut. That was easy.

Casey lives about 40 minutes from Moncton at Hopewell Cape, such a beautiful spot with a great view from his backyard.

Jenny and I love driving this section and visiting all the scenic spots. Check out the day trip we took along this section of New Brunswick and where you’ll find the Rocks on the Fundy Bay.

Casey and a friend hauled his fish hut out onto Shediac Bay, in about 6 sections, and assembled it right on the spot. It seems pretty efficient with four side panels that bolt to the floor and to two roof panels. Plenty of elbow room inside as well.

The floor boards opened opposite the door and there was a big hole to fish through. I looked into the hole expecting to see bottom but instead I saw tow huge chunks of ice at the bottom. Turns out they were huge homemade pillow cases filled with chains.

Sheets Sown Together With Chains

They are used to make the bottom a lighter colour so that it is easier to see any activity. Pretty cool idea.  I told him I was telling his wife he was stealing bed sheet. Then he told me she was the one who sowed it all together. What a great wife.

Getting There From Here

Once Casey picked me up we headed out of Moncton towards Dieppe and took the old highway 15 which is now Veterans Highway to Shediac.

Once at Shediac took highway 133 until we reached the Queens Warf turn off where the fishing hut is located. We may have taken highway 11 to get to highway 133, not sure as I was busy taking pictures of the scenery.

Queens Warf road was a short drive to the water, err I mean ice. As you can see from the picture at the top the huts weren’t far off shore.

Casey and I checked the structure and tightened a few bolts and then chopped the ice that had formed in the hole since he was last there.

The tide was heading out when we arrived and we didn’t see any fish but it was still a lot of fun and I can’t wait to get back out there again.

I have ice fished, more than 30 years ago but Casey has a couple of spears which I have never tried as the water we fished in Lake Simcoe Ontario was about 40 feet deep. So I’ll be getting some video the next time we’re out there.

We had a clear, relatively calm and sunny day plus the temperature wasn’t bad at all, however that’s not always the case so it’s best to know how to dress for ice fishing on days that aren’t so pleasant.

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I don’t know if you would really call this ice fishing but it was opening day for trout fishing and I took a friend to a spot that I have had great luck with on opening day. But it wasn’t that spot we ended up fishing first.

As I was taking my friend through some rough hiking so I could show him a few places he could fish later in the season with his fly rod. I always bring my fly rod with me opening day. It’s just something about catching a nice brookie on the fly opening day, April 15.

Usually there is still plenty of snow and ice so I was really surprised to see the center of the pond I fish during the summer months had a huge opening in the middle. Now I wasn’t silly enough to venture onto the ice, that would have been suicide. But that didn’t stop me from putting my fly rod together along with a nice deer hair fly.

My friend just laughed at me. He was wondering how I would ever get a trout to shore if I even got a strick.

The sun was high and it felt quite warm. We didn’t even need gloves on.

My first cast was not even close to the open water. My arm needed a little more practice and then I was in the water. Well my fat little trout fly was in the water.

My buddy didn’t even bother to try, not even with his spinning rod, until I that fly hit the water and a trout nailed it. Well he nailed it but it was way too big for the little guys mouth. He was about 6 inches long.

I didn’t catch a trout at that spot but it was a lot of fun watching the little brookies jump for that fly.

I tried a few other flies but nothing. It seems they only wanted to play with a fly they couldn’t eat.

After a half hour of playing around my buddy was begging me to take him to the spot I had intended which was only about another 20 minutes of fighting through the bush. But that story is for another day.

I have a new fishing buddy I just met last year and I plan to take him to this same spot. It’s been a few years since I have been there, hope it hasn’t been over populated with humans now.

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Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Fishing through the ice is a sport that can be enjoyed by everyone in the family. Unlike other Winter sports, it’s cheap to get fixed up and with just a little bit of knowledge, a Greenhorn can have an excellent chance at success their first trip onto the ice.

But what’s required to begin ice fishing? One has so many choices in fishing reels on the market now, First Timer could easily lay out hundreds of their hard earned money on ice fishing supplies and never get what they really need.

Knowing this, I sit down and made this collection of basic ice fishing tackle that a First Timer will need to start. What’s even better is that for less money than it cost for a trip to the grocery store, you should be able to nab all the fishing gear that a Beginner will need to start fishing.

Before anything else, you will need an auger meant for ice fishing to cut holes in the hard water. I recommend a 5 or 6 inch ice auger for panfish. For bigger fish like Walleye, Pike or Channel Catfish, then I recommend a 8 or 10 inch ice auger. You have two choices, power augers or the manual augers. You need to keep in mind that the manual augers are less expensive but require more effort to drill a hole. You will also need a scoop to get the ice chips out of the ice hole.

You’ll want to buy quality tip ups or ice rods. A lot of fishermen bore a lot of holes over rock piles, weed beds and other types of bottom structure and use numerous tip-ups to increase their chances of catching fish. Other fishermen prefer to ice fish with an ice fishing rod. For Beginners, I’d want a few tip ups along with a good rod so you can see which tactic catches you the most fish.

Fishing line should be designed for cold water that is associated with ice fishing. The near freezing water can make the line so stiff that it breaks easily. That’s why you’ll want to be sure and obtain line specifically designed for ice fishing. Cortland makes a product called Ice Line that is great. The line you buy for ice fishing is the most crucial part of your ice fishing supplies.

Beginners will want to get some jigs and lures designed for ice fishing. Tiny jigs are excellent for panfish like Perch, Bluegill and Crappie. Also tear drop jigs and tiny spoons will come in handy when the panfish get finicky. As for bait, panfish love mealworms and spikes while larger fish such as Walleye prefer Worms or baitfish like smelt. Be sure to talk to local fishermen to see what’s they recommend a Beginner use their first time out on the ice.

It would be wise to bring something to sit on. Many seasoned ice fishermen prefer an ordinary five gallon bucket. Some will even bring lawn chairs out on the ice, but a 5 gallon bucket will also help you haul your gear to and from the ice.

And this is all you need to to start ice fishing. Make sure you get a fishing license and read up on the regulations for the body of water you plan on going fishing at. Getting a ticket for breaking a law can put a damper on your ice fishing efforts. You’re cleared to go fishing and start drilling holes in the lake. Never forget the first rule of ice fishing, be safe and follow all the safety rules for fishing on the ice.

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Image by Mark Sardella via Flickr

Ice fishing is carried out on a frozen body of water. Lines and spears are part of the ice fishing gear together with other tools meant to break the hard surface and cut a hole for uniform access to the unfrozen depths underneath. They may sit on a stool in the open air on the ice near the opening through which they get their fish. Some fishermen have made this activity even more pleasurable as they have built cabins of wood around the opening which are heated and equipped with bunk beds so that they could also take a bit of rest.

Ice fishing is very popular especially in the cold areas on our globe. Some countries where it has become a hobby during free time are the European Northern ones like Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Russia and even Germany. The Great popularity levels are reputed by ice fishing in the North of the United States, as well as in Canada and Alaska.

Getting into more details about the fishing gear used, we may realize that it is pretty different from other types of fishing in that it has become rather specialized. A fishing line or a spear would surely prove worthless in this type of activity in the absence of a chisel or an ice saw to start things with. Keep in mind that the ice break through is the one to come first. But despite the hole the freezing process is unstoppable, therefore most fishermen also get a skimmer with them to remove that newly formed ice layer. Most people also rely on a heater not only for their sakes but also for keeping the area around the hole warm enough to avoid letting more ice be formed. This is the reason why wooden huts or cabins which retain the heat indoors are held in high esteem by ice fishing fans.

Ice fishing is based on three different methods, each with its specifically designed tools. First, you can use small-sized rods with colorful little lures or baits. Secondly, you can tip-ups that are a great means of catching fish in large quantities within a certain period of time. And last, there’s spear ice fishing for which you need a larger hole and fish decoys.

No matter for which of the three you go, things with ice fishing will never be like in the all days. It seems that today, with the help of sonars, ice fishing lovers can identify the areas where fish are located in the large body of water under the ice. Presently fishermen will make about 100 holes per day if they want a lot of game and have so much better results than those of their predecessors’ who relied on just one hole and waited for the fish to come by.

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